Cardinal in a Tree
I happened to look out my kitchen window and saw a male cardinal high up in a tree. Not only was the cardinal high up in the tree, he was a long way from where I stood watching him!
Male Cardinal
I used my new camera, the Olympus E-5, with an Olympus 70-300 mm lens to capture this photograph. I was zoomed all the way out, to 300 mm (which is equivalent to a 35 mm focal length of 600mm). This photograph is NOT CROPPED. For my photography buffs I include additional EXIF information. This photograph was taken at f/16 with a shutter speed of 1/320 sec. and ISO 250. I used spot metering and a sunny White Balance. I did not use a tripod.
By cropping the above photograph, I brought the cardinal a lot closer to me.
Male Cardinal
By the way, as you can tell, it is a gorgeous day here in Western Pennsylvania!
The Beauty Around Us 
12 Responses to “Cardinal in a Tree”
You really can zoom with that lens! I love the pics of the birds around your home, especially the cardinals since I really love them here too.
Nice job on that Linda. I've got that same lens on my E30 and found it comes in handy quite often.
What a great picture. You did a marvelous job of capturing the cardinal with your long lens.I'm glad you had a beautiful, sunny day after all the snow you've had this winter.
Nice shot, Linda! Except for the macro all of my lenses are image stabilized and I can usually get away with shooting offhand which is a good thing because I ALWAYS forget the tripod is in the truck.
It is a beautiful, colourful bird!Ram
Linda – I love the uncropped photo. The leafless trees, the sense of absence and right in the middle of it all, a small, red speck of life. Your love of taking photos shows in each one you do. The “Patches series” has been fun. What a sweet little girl. Ellen
I love cardinals, but have a hard time getting close too. I love the splash of color against the blue sky.
I am so ready for a few days of brilliant blue skies….and he is a handsome fellow sitting there.
Great shots of the Cardinal, Linda!
Thank you all for your comments!@Chip – My camera has IS built in, so I am able to take a lot more pictures hand held than I was without IS! I still tend to shake, though, when I attempt to focus on something as small as a bird a long ways off!@E.Z. – Ellen, I went to your blogger profile. I didn't find any recent blog posts …
Red against a blue sky, it just doesn't get any better than that.
Beautiful shot! Good job:)